sky-daisy767

[sky-daisy767]

not to be dumb on main, but I’ve only rly seen the mcu and not read many comics and I was wondering if you could tell me the reasons you ship spideytorch? Esp bc it’s spideytorch week

I can do that, especially in light of it being Spideytorch week. (I can even tie it into the first two days of @spideytorchweek‘s themes because I’m brilliant like that.)  If you’re coming from a mostly MCU background, what you need to know about Spider-Man comics is that, by in large, they’re a very different animal, especially in terms of Peter’s personality and supporting cast. Unlike in the MCU, he doesn’t have a best friend in high school – there is a Ned Leeds in comics, but he’s a reporter for the Bugle who functions as Peter’s rival for the affections of his first girlfriend, Bugle secretary Betty Brant, and Peter wouldn’t meet Harry Osborn or become friends with Flash Thompson until he entered college. If Peter does have a male friend he’s close to during this point, for the relative value of “friend”, it’s Johnny Storm.

Peter and Johnny first meet in the very first issue of Amazing Spider-Man. This is partially because the Fantastic Four’s brief appearance in the issue were used promote this new superhero book. One thing you have to understand at this point is that the Fantastic Four were wildly popular at their debut, and featuring them in the first solo Spider-Man story was a surefire way to get people to pick up the book. What this ending up cementing was a long and storied in-universe connection between Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. Peter’s served as an Avenger in 616, but he’s family to the Fantastic Four. 

Not that Peter and Johnny got along at first.

(Amazing Spider-Man #1)

(Amazing Spider-Man #8)

(Strange Tales Annual #2) There was some pretty extreme pigtail pulling going on at first from Peter towards Johnny.

This is one of the premier friendships – developing at this point as it is – in Marvel comics. It basically predates all of the other big ones: Captain America and Iron Man, Luke Cage and Danny Rand, any other big Spider-Man friendship. This came first. There’s a lot of reasons for that – team ups between the Human Torch, who at this point was big enough to have his own run on Strange Tales in addition to the Fantastic Four, and Spider-Man, an instant hit with fans, was good for the sales on both books, and the relationship made sense and was organic because both characters were teenagers who were the same age, who had gained powers in fantastic accidents, and who both had personalities suited to a banter-filled rapport filled with fun bickering.

In spite or maybe because of that early bickering, though, it quickly becomes apparent that Johnny really respects and admires Spider-Man:

(Amazing Spider-Man #18)

Peter Parker, on the other hand, who Johnny’s at the time girlfriend Dorrie Evans thinks is just so polite and gentlemanly? Peter Parker, Johnny doesn’t like so much at this point.

(Amazing Spider-Man #21) And here we have the beginning of our identity porn, practically a staple when it comes to superhero ships. This kind of dynamic between Johnny and Spider-Man/Peter Parker would continue up until Peter revealed his identity to Johnny in the middle of a crisis, having to silently trust him to understand:

(Spider-Man/Human Torch #5)

So you’ve got this amazingly long history, and from the beginning the shippy tropes are piling on – Johnny saying he could understand if his girlfriend fell for Spider-Man, Peter and Johnny having their own special meeting place, and then there’s the fact that Johnny gets kidnapped to use as bait for Spider-Man:

(Amazing Spider-Man #19)

Fast forward a bit. After the death of Gwen Stacy, who Peter was very much in love with and who he was seriously talking about marriage with, Peter unsurprisingly falls into a dark mood. One of the bright spots for him? Building the Spider-Mobile, which he’d been hired by an automotive company to drive, with Johnny:

(ASM #130)

In an updated version of this story in Spider-Man/Human Torch #3 (they even had their own team up comic!), Peter speaks to Gwen’s ghost-slash-memory, and says that when he’s with Johnny he feels like he’s “her” Peter again, the best version of himself:

“And for the first time in a long time, it doesn’t feel like I’m putting on act, or going through the motions. Suddenly, I’m Spidey again. No, I’m Peter again. Your Peter.” Considering Peter was head over heels in love with Gwen and planned to spend the rest of his life with her, that’s one hell of a romantic statement.

Couple this with the fact that, in and out of the mask, Johnny’s consistently one of the best people at calming Peter down and making him take a step back. That might not sound too impressive if you’re not familiar with comics Peter, but in comics, when he’s angry and upset, he has a tendency to verbally lash out at people he loves and isolate himself. It’s generally not a good idea to get in the middle of one of his fights, either – think like inserting yourself into the fight when your dog’s trying to fight another dog. Your dog might love you, but there’s still a very good chance you’re gonna get bit. Johnny’s success record here is unmatched.

(ASM #591)

(Amazing Spider-Man (2015) #5)

Then there’s the fact that Peter clearly feels protective of Johnny. (Though, to be fair, 616 Peter feels very protective about everyone he loves.) When Johnny lost his powers and was on a self-destructive bender, Peter teamed up with Johnny’s other best friend, Wyatt Wingfoot, to snap him out of it:

(Fantastic Four v5 #12) Look at that hand on Johnny’s stomach, steadying him on the building’s ledge. Also look how pretty Johnny is – the real question is, why isn’t he shipped more?

Peter also spent served as Johnny’s personal taxi afterwards:

(Fantastic Four #642)

When the Red Skull recently possessed Johnny and failed to make Johnny hurt his teammates, he taunted Peter by threatening to kill Johnny in front of him, a threat to which Peter violently reacted:

(Uncanny Avengers #20)

So there you have your hurt/comfort, the second trope at play here. (Also, Johnny is a champion damsel of the Marvel universe. I once tried to average out how much he faints and came out with something like 1 out of every 3 issues in the early Fantastic Four days. If you like your hurt/comfort, Johnny Storm is right here, collapsing all the time and getting kidnapped by giant gorillas at least three, one time of which – Amazing Spider-Man Annual #4 – Peter has to save him.)

There’s a million other factors that play into “reasons why I ship them” here – they canonically consider themselves family. They have an established tradition to meet up every Christmas morning at the Statue of Liberty. When Johnny died (he got better) he left a video will instructing that his place on the team be left to Peter and saying that “we all love you”:

(ASM #657)

They lived together when Johnny was recovered alive for a short period of time, during which Johnny cooked Peter breakfast in nothing but his underwear and a saucy apron, yes, really:

(FF #17 – there are word bubbles here in the finished issue, but they just distract from the rest of this, honestly.) And when Johnny’s family disappeared and Peter found himself unexpectedly a millionaire (long story), he bought the Baxter Building to keep it safe for Johnny. They’ve mentioned having movie nights in canon. Whether or not anyone ships them, it’s hard to deny in canon that they love each other, and that they have a bond forged over decades and decades worth of canon. They’re incredibly close, to the point where, when Peter’s identity was wiped from the minds of just about everyone on the planet, Johnny was one of the few people (along with Felicia Hardy, Peter’s ex-girlfriend) who knew that he used to know who Spider-Man was, and the loss of that knowledge hurt him deeply. They’ve fought together, they’ve saved each other lives, they’ve celebrated holidays together, and they’ve propped each other when the other needed it. It’s a ship with so much history it’s honestly hard to sum them up quickly or efficiently – honestly, they have more history and more reasons to ship them than, I would say, at least 80% of other popular ships and I mean ships in general, not just Marvel ships. It’s pretty amazing to have a relationship in canon that has endured the test of so many years and still remained incredibly relevant to each character. If you’re interested in checking out some more comics featuring them, I have a big long in depth reclist here!

Also, Johnny once slept naked in Peter’s bed:

(Civil War II: Amazing Spider-Man #1)

Just platonic best friend things. You’re welcome.

[sky-daisy767]

Third wheeling is so awkward.

[sky-daisy767]

Literally said I’d like to be a romcom love interest to Sandra Bullock last night and today when I said “be gay, do crime” my mom said “ I don’t think they’ed like that”. Mother. Who is they. They is me. Can I be dropping the hints harder.

[sky-daisy767]

Some days I just feel like an extra in a movie. Today it is a gossip girl/pretty little liars type movie. Four of my hall mates, two sets of roommates are all friends and go to parties all the time and for some reason the four of them were all just standing outside in the courtyard, in February, standing in a close circle whispering to each other. Like you have two rooms across from each other. Go inside. Main character types can be so dumb.

[sky-daisy767]

Haha ha haha. I love college. My mother made one bad joke about my grades and I started crying. Living it up.

[sky-daisy767]

Why do New Yorkers hate New Jersey? It just makes absolutely no sense. Other states are so different from New York but New Jersey is right next door. It’s like hating your mostly nice gardener (the garden state?) neighbor that lets you play sports in their yard. Like, why??

[sky-daisy767]

College students are just like fuck high schoolers we just pretend to be mature with big fake it ‘til you make it energy. Just because we have to feed ourselves does not make us adults. My feelings are actually rather insistent that everything is fucking stupid and makes no sense.

[sky-daisy767]

Mary by Big Thief makes me feel dead. Not dying. Not depressed. Full on dead. It’s so jarring for some reason. I can’t tell if I want to play it forever or never again. Kinda both. Fuck my life.

[sky-daisy767]

I’m the best friend of the love interest in a romantic comedy but I’ve been sworn to secrecy so know one will ever even know.

[sky-daisy767]

Guys if someone who can write would write a fic where Mitch Rapp, Stiles Stilinski, and Thomas are all actually the same person it would make me so happy.

Like, I even have an idea how you could do it. Well. A few but I’ll tell you one.

So Stiles went to FBI training right? And did well, so that sets an agent precedents. Then Stiles’ name is Mieczysław which Mitch could be a nickname for. Idk where Rapp would come from but if Stiles goes away for college after the FBI program, he wants to get a degree before going into the FBI, because he wants some distance from the supernatural then maybe he changes his name to really distance himself. Then he meats Katrina. Cue events of American Assassin. Then WICKED somehow captures Mitch and then cue the events of Maze Runner. Idk exactly how’d that go since it’s been a while since I’ve looked at Maze Runner stuff but on other Maze Runner/Teen Wolf fics there’s a lot of Thomas/Stiles getting out of the simulation or whatever and adjusting to real life with the pack with his astronomical trauma and/or WICKED induced amnesia.

OR

You switch Maze Runner and American Assassin. After/towards the end of canon Teen Wolf Stiles gets captured by WICKED and becomes Thomas. Cue Maze Runner canon altering things here and there to fit the fic. Eventually some government organization rescues the survivors. Those that still have amnesia and they can’t figure out where they’re from get new identities. Thomas becomes Mitch Rapp fake orphan backstory and all. Cue events of American Assassin. Except of course the pack and/or a possibility surviving Newt see news coverage featuring either the beach video or Mitch holding that driver at gun point and realize he’s not dead. Cue a very confusing reunion and a bunch of other stuff that a good writer would think of.

Someone please do this and message me when you do.

[sky-daisy767]

It has now been proven that a good best friend and the promise of ice cream can overcome crippling anxiety on a good day.

[sky-daisy767]

Me being a legal adult is the best joke I’ve ever heard.

[sky-daisy767]

The dentist has proscribed me with “gums bleed when stabbed with sharp metal stick.”

[sky-daisy767]

Let’s all just admit that every bisexual has a crush on Zendaya and Harry Styles.

[sky-daisy767]

Wow I really just love how I can’t tell if I relate to mental illness memes because I have mental illness or if I’m using what I can vaguely constitute as mental illness symptoms as an excuse to be awful.

[sky-daisy767]

“I’ll keep all my feelings right here and then one day I’ll die.”

[sky-daisy767]

My brother just said that I am dark humor so I must be doing something right.